The Sacred Aura of the Turkish Flag

Abstract

During the last few years the Turkish Flag has gained incessant public attention and visibility. Events in both foreign and domestic Turkish politics are often discussed in relation to the honor of the ay yıldız, the ‘Star and Crescent’, and sometimes the banner itself is to be found in the very center of ongoing events. Among recent examples from the realm of foreign policy, one could refer to the crisis of January 1996 between Turkey and Greece over an uninhabited cliff in the Aegean Sea, which culminated in a commando operation to plant the Turkish flag on the cliff; or to the latest incident on the Turkish-Greek border in Cyprus where a young Greek trying to tear down the Turkish colors was shot dead. In the domestic arena, one of the most shocking and disturbing events of recent Turkish politics has centered on the insult to the flag during the last political rally of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democracy Party, HADEP, in June of 1996. At the rally, the Turkish “Red Banner”, the al sancak, was cut down, and replaced by the flag of the banned Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK. The scene was captured by television cameras and repeatedly broadcast by different channels, in slow motion.